In Android 14, Google would prepare an option to avoid giving applications access to the entire gallery. Instead, you can make only selected photos accessible by a particular app. A feature already found in iOS.
We are going for Android 14 DP1. In other words, the future update of the operating system has officially begun to prepare, but it is still in its infancy. This is already an opportunity to look into some new stuff that Google is coming up with behind the scenes. An exercise that Mishaal Rahman of XDA Developers who discovered an iOS-inspired privacy option.
In an article published on the specialized site, he explains that Android 14 should offer even finer control over the permissions granted to applications to access photos and videos stored on the phone.
A new option in Android 14 for more privacy
Specifically, Android 14 will always leave the possibility of authorizing (or denying) an application to access your photos and videos. However, to these classic options an option would be added: allow access only to selected photos.
Source: XDA Developers
Source: XDA Developers
Source: XDA Developers
XDA Developers shares some screenshots showing how this feature would manifest itself in various places:
- as a popup displayed on top of the app when the app needs to access photos;
- in the image selector once the user has decided to allow access only to the images they have chosen;
- in Android 14 settings by managing permissions granted to apps.
This user experience would therefore be very similar to that of iOS on the iPhone where a similar option already exists. Note, however, that this feature is not yet available by default in Android 14 Developer Preview. It takes some tweaking to turn it on, but we can think that for the Beta phase or stable version of ‘OS, it will be introduced. For the general public.
Go beyond Android 13
XDA Developers
remember that Android 13 had already taken a step in that direction by offering a new photo selector giving access only to selected images. The tool in question was also integrated into Google Play Services and thus worked even on older versions of Android. So the solution was very practical, but technically not easy for developers to adopt. Result of the races: only a handful of apps had made an effort to make this transition beneficial for the confidentiality of the users.
However, with Android 14, Google would leave no choice and would even force apps that didn’t make the necessary modifications after Android 13 to go through the proper photo picker to take advantage of this new option. At least there’s a good reason to expect to learn more during the future stages of Android 14 development.
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